The korea economic daily

The Korean Teachers’ Credit Union (KTCU) has pushed up overseas private equity investments by 90% to 1.9 trillion won ($1.6 billion) over the past one and a half years, at a faster pace than the growth in domestic private equity investment during the same period.

Between the end of 2018 and the end of June 2020, the retirement fund boosted the balance of its PE investments by 1.4 trillion won, of which the global portfolio accounted for 900 billion won, KTCU said on Sept. 8.



It has ramped up overseas PE investments since launching the PEF-focused corporate finance division in 2018.

“We have been meeting capital calls from blind-pool funds since 2018, which has sharply boosted the balance of our overseas PE investment,” said an KTCU source. “We have been investing in PEFs focused on developed markets such as North America, Europe and Australia for safe returns.”

In the first half of this year, KTCU posted an average investment return of 5.4%, slightly below the 6.3% a year earlier. But its first-half results still outperformed those of other Korean pension funds, including the National Pension Service's.

“Thanks to diversification into various investment sectors and a larger number of global management companies, we were able to secure solid returns from PEF investments. We will continue to increase investment in PEFs,” said the KTCU source.

By Seon-pyo Hong

rickey@hankyung.com